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Costume History Rebirth
This is a continuation of the masterful guide to Steph's costumes and clothes created by our wonderful founder. Building off of the New 52 redesign by Dustin Nguyen, DC Rebirth has developed Steph's costume in a few interesting ways! Detective Comics Eddy Barrows Artist Eddy Barrows, known for a significant run on Nightwing with Kyle Higgins at the beginning of the New 52, handled the main visual transferral from Steph's New 52 appearance to her first Rebirth appearances as the "main" artist in the rotating schedule of art teams mandated by the twice-monthly shipping book. His long-limbed, lean look for Steph appeared on several covers, particularly the first of the series (#934) and her first solo issue, #957. Barrow's version of the costume seemed like a fairly straightfoward imitation of the Nguyen design. Alvaro Martinez Spanish artist Alvaro Martinez was the second "main" artist in the rotation, and provided a more strongly built look for Steph, while highlighting the strong effect of the ribbed panels and thigh belt against the black of her costume. He also strongly emphasized the "Spider-Man" effect of her "new" full face mask (see below) instead of the impressionistic black void with white eyes that some artists have favored. Al Barrionuevo During The Victim Syndicate arc, fill-in artist Al Barrionuevo illustrated a scene in which Batwing, Luke Fox, gives Steph a redesigned mask designed to help her avoid being poisoned by one of their foes. This full face mask clearly resembles Steph's original Spoiler costume, instead of the Nguyen ninja-style mask. Flashbacks from Detective Comics #980 by Scot Eaton In the amazing penultimate issue of James Tynion's run on Detective Comics, fill-in artist Scot Eaton provided two flashback images of Steph's previous identities. Batgirl A somewhat generic version of Lee Garbett's design for Steph's Batgirl suit, but one which does feature all of the details which made that suit so iconic to Steph. Interestingly, in the three panels which feature a holographic image of Steph's Batgirl costume, Eaton apparently drew upon several variations of the suit from her solo series, though none of the images has a clear model. In addition to the colors of the suit shifting between different shades of purple and gray (and including a yellow cape lining never seen on Steph, but common on some versions of Babs), Steph's Bat-symbol appears in both her "typical" rounded wing shape and a more angular, Batman-like logo, and the trim of her costume, like the gauntlets, boots, utility belt, and thigh belt differ in size, shape, placement, details, and clasps. Robin A much more specific reference to Steph's Robin costume as drawn in Batgirl #53, which was a somewhat muted version of Damion Scott's exuberant design. Detective Comics #1000 In the celebratory issue of Detective Comic's 1000th issue, Steph appeared as part of the full Batfamily, drawn by two top tier artists Tony Daniel One of the main rotating artists on Tom King's run of Batman, Daniel drew Steph with her entire face masked by her hood, appearing mostly as a black void with white eyeholes. Jason Fabok Like Daniel, Fabok emphasizes Steph's hood over her mask, though this could be because of the small scale of Steph in the spread. Young Justice Kris Anka In his DC comic art debut, Anka drew Steph for the variant cover of issue 5 with her original Nguyen ninja mask. Considering that Steph would almost always take off whatever mask she was wearing in most of her Rebirth appearances, we'll have to wait and see what the future holds for her costume portrayal.